Infill
[5] Gentrification is a term that is challenging to define because it manifests differently by location, and describes a process of gradual change in the identity of a neighborhood.
[11] Peter Moskowitz, the author of How to Kill a City, has more specifically put gentrification into context by describing it as a process permitted by "decades of racist housing policy" and perpetuated through a "political system focused more on the creation and expansion of business opportunities than the well-being of its citizens.
[11] In order to accommodate these new residents, local governments will change zoning codes and give out subsidies to encourage the development of new living spaces.
[10] Through increased rents for existing shops and rental units, long time residents and shopkeepers are forced to move, making way for the more new development.
[5] The similarities, and subsequent confusion, between gentrification and infill housing can be identified in John A. Powell’s broader scholarship on regional solutions to urban sprawl and concentrated poverty.
[5] To make his point, powell focuses on infill development, explaining that one of the major challenges to it is the lack of advocacy that it receives locally from urban civil rights advocates and community members.
[5] Powell also acknowledges that there is historical merit to these concerns, citing how during the 1960s infill development proved to favor white residents over minorities and how white-flight to the suburbs occurred throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century.
[5] He also addresses the concern that minority groups will lose power in these communities by explaining how "cities like Detroit and Cleveland are far from being at risk of political domination by whites.
"[5] The ways that Powell believes infill development could help poor cities like Detroit and Cleveland are through the increase in middle class residents and the new buildings that are constructed in the neighborhoods.
[5] Infill development's ability to eradicate old industrial sites and city-wide blight also can improve the quality of life for residents and spark much-needed outside investment in cities.
[13] Doing so requires explaining that infill projects use vacant land and do not displace lower income residents, but instead benefit them in the creation of stable, mixed-income communities.
[15] Costs for developers include acquiring land, removing existing structures,[16] and testing for and cleaning up any environmental contamination.
[16] Large-scale development benefits from what economists call economies of scale and reduces the surrounding negative influences of neighborhood blight, crime, or poor schools.
[16] However, large scale infill development is often difficult in a blighted neighborhood for several reasons, such as the difficulties in acquiring land and in gaining community support.
Although citizen involvement has been found to facilitate the development of brownfield land, residents in blighted neighborhoods often want to convert vacant lots to parks or recreational facilities, but external actors seek to build apartment complexes, commercial shopping centers, or industrial sites.
It is one of the tenets of New Urbanism and smart growth, trends that urge densification to reduce the need for automobiles, encourage walking, and save energy ultimately.
